Velocity of Honey - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845131088 ISBN 13: 9781845131081

Publisher: Gardners Books

Synopsis

Why does a dropped slice of toast always land butter side down? What's the science behind 'six degrees of separation?' How do stones 'skim'? Why, when we visit somewhere new, does it seem to take far longer to get there than to come back? These are the kind of intriguing mysteries of everyday life that Jay Ingram's new book sets out to solve by scientific investigation. Where so many supposedly popular science books these days are densely argued and strenuously theoretical works about quantum physics or the uncertainty theory that at the very least would not be leisure reading for the average bookbuyer, The Velocity of Honey is that rare article, a genuinely popular, readable and entertaining science book. The author will be well known to the many viewers of the Discovery Channel, and his last book for Aurum, The Barmaid's Brain, sold out in two editions. Why The Velocity of Honey? Because the author also answers the question of why honey inevitably runs off the spoon and forms strange dribbly shaped on your toast...

About this title

About the Author

Jay Ingram is the host of the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet programme and author of several bestselling books, including Talk, Talk, Talk, The Science of Everyday Life and The Barmaid's Brain (1 84510 755 0, also published by Aurum).

From Publishers Weekly

Science can uncover the origins of the cosmos and the blueprints of life itself, but it can also explore some of the most inconsequential phenomena known to man. No less than three essays in this charming collection concern the spillage of breakfast foods, including the title piece on dripping honey and further investigations of why toast always falls with the buttered side down and why coffee stains are ring-shaped. Other topics probed by Ingram, host of the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet and author of The Science of Everyday Life, include the physics of coin-spinning, stone-skipping and paper-crumpling; the math talents of animals and infants; the six degrees of separation myth; and the cognitive psychology behind a range of desultory human capabilities, from catching a fly ball to working an ATM machine. Though the scientific theories Ingram unearths are fascinating, more hilarious is the disproportion between effort and importance, as with the elaborate experimental protocols scientists have developed to investigate the feeling people sometimes get of being watched. Ingram's deft, witty writing gives a real feel for science as a human process of trying to answer the questions, no matter how inane, that happen to get stuck in one's craw.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Gardners Books
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845131088
• ISBN 13: 9781845131081
• Binding: Paperback